1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for gripping an optical fiber, including a gripper head provided with a rectilinear V-groove for housing an optical fiber which is in contact with the lips of said V-groove along two generator-lines, a fiber-holding member being brought to bear on the optical fiber along a generator-line opposite to the generator-line which is engaged to the greatest depth within the rectilinear V-groove of the gripper head, opening means and locking means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,276,113 describes a gripper for maintaining two optical fibers in butt-aligned relation for fusion splicing. The gripper is formed by a head and a fiber-holding member which are both grooved, the holding member being capable of moving in rotation about an axis which is common with the head. The gripper is also provided with opening means and locking means such as a spring, for example. A device of this type is very cumbersome and does not readily permit transfer of an optical fiber from one work station to another. A further drawback is that no means are provided in this device for regulating and controlling the force applied transversely to the fiber.
The object of the present invention is to provide an optical-fiber gripping device which is of very small size, which permits easy transfer of the fiber from one work station to another (e.g. for operations such as stripping, cutting, fusing or bonding, reforming of coatings, tensile tests) and in which the holding force applied to the fiber can readily be controlled and reproduced. A further aim of the invention is to provide a high-precision fiber-gripping device which ensures reproducibility of positioning of the optical fiber at each work station without entailing any need for meticulous adjustments.